ing would not be long before it
was announced. This time Colbert seemed to walk in concert with the
bishop of Vannes, and had he received for every annoyance which he
inflicted on the king a word of direction from Aramis, he could not
have done better. During the whole of the day the king, who, in all
probability, wished to free himself from some of the thoughts which
disturbed his mind, seemed to seek La Valliere's society as actively as
he seemed to show his anxiety to flee that of M. Colbert or M. Fouquet.
The evening came. The king had expressed a wish not to walk in the park
until after cards in the evening. In the interval between supper and
the promenade, cards and dice were introduced. The king won a thousand
pistoles, and, having won them, put them in his pocket, and then rose,
saying, "And now, gentlemen, to the park." He found the ladies of the
court were already there. The king, we have before observed, had won a
thousand pistoles, and had put them in his pocket; but M. Fouquet had
somehow contrived to lose ten thousand, so that among the courtiers
there was still left a hundred and ninety thousand francs' profit to
divide, a circumstance which made the countenances of the courtiers and
the officers of the king's household the most joyous countenances in
the world. It was not the same, however, with the king's face; for,
notwithstanding his success at play, to which he was by no means
insensible, there still remained a slight shade of dissatisfaction.
Colbert was waiting for or upon him at the corner of one of the avenues;
he was most probably waiting there in consequence of a rendezvous which
had been given him by the king, as Louis XIV., who had avoided him, or
who had seemed to avoid him, suddenly made him a sign, and they then
struck into the depths of the park together. But La Valliere, too, had
observed the king's gloomy aspect and kindling glances; she had remarked
this--and as nothing which lay hidden or smoldering in his heart
was hidden from the gaze of her affection, she understood that this
repressed wrath menaced some one; she prepared to withstand the current
of his vengeance, and intercede like an angel of mercy. Overcome by
sadness, nervously agitated, deeply distressed at having been so long
separated from her lover, disturbed at the sight of the emotion she
had divined, she accordingly presented herself to the king with an
embarrassed aspect, which in his then disposition of mind the king
in